Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile (recovering from an arm injury; on a short review-writing break)'s Reviews > Small Things Like These

Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize!

Bill Furlong , coal and timber merchant lives with his family , wife Eileen and five daughters in a small Irish town. It is 1985 and though local businesses are facing an economic downturn, Bill is doing well enough for himself and his family to be comfortable if not affluent. In the days leading to Christmas, the brutally cold weather keeps him busy with work filling orders around his little town.

On his delivery route he arrives at Good Shepherd Convent that runs a home for unwed mothers and a laundry (Magdalen laundry) and witnesses an incident of abuse. Born to an unwed mother and raised in the guardianship of her kind employer, Bill is sympathetic to the plight of the girls whose situation is similar to his mother’s and grateful for the kindness of the Mrs. Wilson who never judged him or his late mother. He realizes that whatever goes in in the those facilities is not a secret to the locals but given the link to the church and school (where his own daughters also attend) and the deep seated influence of the church in the lives of the local community, people choose to look the other way and not engage in any action that would go against the church. Now he faces a moral dilemma – should he do what his heart says and be ready to face whatever repercussions might follow or should he follow the lead of his fellow townspeople and choose to ignore the obvious?

Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These is a beautiful and heart touching novella that emphasizes the importance of human kindness and consideration for others. Powerful and thought provoking, this short novella will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. I'm glad that this was my Christmas read.

I have to admit that I didn’t know much about Ireland’s Magdalen laundries before reading this story. I was heartbroken on reading about the plight of those young girls and the children that were born in those facilities. I can only hope that some of them may have found kindness in people like Bill in a society that was in the most part unkind and unwilling to help.

“As they carried along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another?”